Tottenham 1-3 Arsenal – 15/09/07 – (Premier League) 16 September, 2007

“We are top of the League!”

Well what an absolutely brilliant Saturday that was, with Liverpool and Chelsea held by Portsmouth and Blackburn respectively We’re two points clear at the top with a game in hand over Chelsea and United. All the singing at the full time whistle was about winning the league and we might just be up there. I don’t think this is our year, however if we’re lucky with injuries and we carry on with the belief and hard work we’ve shown so far this season then we can put up a title challenge.

I was a bit late for yesterday’s game due to grid-lock traffic on Seven Sisters Road. The large group of Gooners on the bus decided we just had to get off and walk. We had still quite a way to go and would be lucky to make kick off. When we got up to Seven Sisters station there were riot police everywhere holding up a group of fans and there was police vans as far as you could see. This was what was holding up all the traffic and it was obvious there had been a bit of pre-match trouble.

When I finally reached the ground the atmosphere was electric as you’d expect and I was really up for this one. However, seconds after I found my seat Spurs scored. Tottenham were looking dangerous around our area and Gilberto went for a tackle from behind which resulted in a free kick in a decent position. Gareth Bale took it and he struck it really well towards the bottom corner. Almunia dived well but his reactions were a split second too slow and the ball went underneath his hand.

We were 1-0 down with quarter of an hour gone but I wasn’t really very worried. I know what Spurs are like and I know the resilience of our team.

Adebayor came close to equalising with what would’ve been a clever goal. Robin Van Persie took a quick throw in which Ade ran on to and shot on the volley at an angle. It was a very difficult shot to get a connection to but it was on target. The angle was tight so it wasn’t difficult for ‘England’s no.1′ to block, however it did show Spurs what we’re capable of in a split second.

Diaby came closest to making it 1-1 when he hit the crossbar. Hleb made a good run cutting inside and found Diaby unmarked over on the left in the area. Abou shot first time but the ball blasted into the woodwork. It should’ve been a goal and there were thousands of Gooners with their heads held in their hands.

We went in one goal down at half time and I wasn’t too impresses with the performance. Looking back on it now though we didn’t play that badly, it was just the emotion of losing at White Hart Lane that exaggerated every single tiny error into a monstrosity. All I could think about was countless misplaced passes and the absolute sitter that Diaby missed plus other chances. There was 45 minutes to go though and I knew the game was far from over.

The home side were taking confidence from their lead and 5 minutes into the second half Berbatov broke through with some poor defending from our centre backs. Gilberto was nowhere but Toure raced back. Almunia had no option but to come out and the Spurs striker rounded him to put all of Arsenal fan’s hearts in their mouths. Toure was the only thing stopping him from scoring now and he pulled off one of the most important tackles of his career. What an absolute legend Toure is. I love him. We broke off that attack but our final ball was poor and we lost possession in the opposition area.

We had another chance to equalize almost immediately after this when Sagna did well to keep the ball in on the right wing. He went passed the defender and then stretched to stop the ball going out for a goal kick. He advanced into the area and played a little pull-back ball to Adebayor unmarked 6 yards out. I thought it was a goal, 1-1, back in the game. But no. Emmanuel blasted the ball way over the bar and I was absolutely fuming. He redeemed himself a few minutes later by scoring the equaliser…

He seems to love scoring against the spuds and how desperate we were for another one from him. We won a free kick out on the left and Fabregas took it, it was a poor effort and a good position was wasted. However, while this was being taken, a stupid Spurs fan was trying to run onto the pitch and his efforts forced this free kick to be re-taken. This time it was a great delivery towards the far post and for some reason Robinson decided to go for the ball and came nowhere near. Adebayor leapt and headed into the open goal. 1-1, fucking ‘ave it. Game on.

After the celebrating had died down we started singing “England’s no.1, England’s, England’s no.1″ over and over again at full voice with everyone clapping and jumping up and down. It was quite beautiful and a reminder of just how terrible he is.

Tottenham nearly took the lead in the 80th minute from a corner. It came straight to Berbatov unmarked in the middle of the area. He struck it with a side-footed volley and Clichy saved the ball on the line with his chest. Phew. So, so lucky there.

Shortly after we were on the attack and Fabregas picked up the ball 30 yards out. He took at touch and there were screams of “Shooooot!” from the away section. I was thinking ‘don’t shoot, it’ll be a waste!’ But how wrong I could be. Cesc struck to ball and it was an absolute screamer swerving into the top left corner and England’s no.1 had no chance. I couldn’t breathe when that went in, it was an absolutely amazing goal to score, the game, the importance, the timing and the fact it was just a brilliant goal. Then I went into absolute ecstasy and in celebrating the goal I broke a seat. I wasn’t too bothered though. It was quite possibly the best goal I’ve ever celebrated live at a football game. However, it is closest contested by our third.

Before that though, mega-money-super-summer-signing Darren Bent (ha!) was clear through on goal and had a one-on-one to equalise. He produced the most pathetic left-foot shot I have ever seen. It was well off target and I knew from this moment on that we’d won the first North London derby of the season.

However this was secured when we added a third late in injury time. Rosicky broke from a Tottenham attack and we out numbered them at the back. The ball came out on the right to Denilson in acres of space. His shot was weak and Robinson made an easy save. However it came out to Cesc who played it into Adebayor on the edge of the box. With his first touch he flicked it up in the air, and with his second it was an acrobatic volley into the top corner. Another brilliant goal and it sealed the victory for Arsenal.

The fans came over to the fans at the end and some threw shirts into the crowd. It was a brilliant day and you could see the players were loving it just as much as we were.

I got out of the stadium pretty quickly to avoid any trouble. Last time got caught up in the police escort, which walked us down Seven Sisters Road in the sun for what seemed like hours. I needed to get back so I made sure I wasn’t in that again. I got between two police fans and got in with all the Spurs fans. Someone tried to trip me up just after I got through but after that I was fine. I had to contain myself was I walked with all the woeful scum…seeing all those dejected faces only made me feel so much better.

I could talk more about individual performances but there’s really no point in taking anything away from this. 3 points is all that matters in game like these.

It was an incredible day made even better by the other results. Top of the league and full of confidence. Here are some words from Wenger on yesterday’s game. Next up is Seville at home in the first game of the Champions League group stages, it’s important we get a good start and coming off the back of this win I believe we can take three points.

A bit of a long one today but I think it deserved it. Thanks for reading.